Finding the Motivation to Stay Healthy After Summer

I know I'm not the only one guilty of wanting to look the best I can in my swimwear during the summer but how about when the holidays are over? Now that the sunnier weather has begun to fade away and the darker mornings are setting in, I'm finding it increasingly harder to muster up some motivation to get out of bed each day, let alone working out.

Throw in the fact that my eating habits aren't typically the norm, I'm faced with a real difficulty to not pile on the pounds over the colder months.

Now this isn't specifically a post about weight loss. I don't want to change how look, more maintain what I've managed to achieve throughout the year so far. 

I'm not sure I've actually mentioned on here but around the middle of the year I changed the way I eat, beginning to use the method of intermittent fasting. What this basically means is fasting for a certain amount of hours and only being able to consume foods for a set amount of time before beginning your next fast.

Right now I tend to stop eating around 9pm and I don't then eat again until around 1.30/2pm the following afternoon. Luckily for me you are allowed to still drink water and black coffee (without sugar) and seen as I basically run on caffeine, this works well for me.

The real question is how to prepare myself to get out of bed to exercise?

My best tips especially as the temperature drops:

* Set a more gentle sounding alarm tone, sounds silly but makes it a lot easier to open your eyes when you're not being woken up so abruptly.

* Make sure the heating comes on before you get up, waking up in a warm house makes a huge difference!

Time to Ditch the Scales and Lose the Weight Obsession

It is no big secret that I have a love hate relationship when it comes to food. More specifically I love it but it is apparent that it really doesn't like my body sometimes. I've struggled over the years to find the right balance between being healthy and turning obsessive, looking at the calories on a packet and deciding I couldn't possibly eat that. This comes down to what I think about my appearance and the numbers that look back at me when I'm standing on the weighing scales. 

There have been times when I have become close to being very ill when I chose to not eat, I lost a lot of weight and I had an obsession with seeing the numbers on the scale go down but we all know that's not a good thing to do and to be honest looking back I also know that it didn't make me look good at all. And if I'm honest since having my daughters I have struggled more because I know that I need to set the example, to show body confidence and to not pass my insecurities onto my children.

Getting Strong not Skinny With Hunkemoller

Since the new year I have been making a conscious effort to be more active and to step up my exercise routines. Not in a bid to lose weight, no I just want to be as healthy as I can be and part of that means working out. I'm in the mind set of strong not skinny and that's why this year I've decided to incorporate more weights into my routines and my goal now is to increase the weights that I can lift throughout the year.

Of course part of exercising means wearing appropriate clothing. I've come to realise that there is nothing more comfortable than a pair of leggings and an exercise bra. No horrible underwire digging into your ribs and elasticated waist bands that are more than forgiving when your body betrays you and decides to make it look like you are carrying around a food baby inside of your stomach ( I can't be the only one that looks 6 months pregnant after eating certain foods?).

On top of that trying to lift weights can be tricky at the best of times but when your hands get sweaty it makes it even harder to pick them up correctly and seen as it is important to keep good form, I don't want any injuries now do I, this means also investing in some good accessories too. The thing is I'm also one of these people that like my accessories to match what I'm wearing, even if no-one else is watching me while I exercise.

Body Confidence, Not Just For Summer

Body confidence, I think it is something that the majority of us strive to feel/have. A couple of years ago I was talking about being beach body ready and at the time I was worrying about the thought of putting on a bikini, daring to bare the skin that I was sure others would be less than impressed to see. Now I know the way to achieve that sort of readiness is just to take your body to the beach, simple right? For some maybe not.

"The most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence"

You see to be able to put on that two piece, or one piece of you prefer, you really need self-confidence, a feeling of self worth and belonging, the ability to say f*ck it, this is who I am and I love myself regardless of any lumps and bumps because we shouldn't just be able to feel confident in our bodies at summer time, we should all be able to hold onto those feelings all year round. The question is how to find such confidence?

"What you think of yourself is far more important than what other people think of you"

Lets Talk Lady Gaga and Fat Rolls

I've talked on my blog and Instagram often about my body, the way I feel judged and how I never seem to be comfortable in my own skin. The media and social media has a big part to play in this and just today the latest body shaming story has sprung. 

Lady Gaga dared to bare her skin and she had, wait for it, fat rolls!! Well not really fat rolls, her body was simply oh natural.

News must be slow if this all they've got to report on and the fact is rolls of fat or not the woman looks frigging hot!

It is articles like this that really get my back up. How are we meant to feel happy with how we look if people constantly feel the need to criticise. Slagging off other peoples bodies seems to have become perfectly acceptable in this day and age and I for one would love to know why?

Hydrate Your Way to a Better You

When I was younger I was terrible for not drinking enough. In fact I made myself quite poorly, ending up with a lot of urine infections as a child. Trouble is I never get that thirsty feeling, I could go all day without having a drink and it wouldn't bother me. However I have come to realise after much telling that drinking plenty (of the right things) can really help keep you healthy and that you can in fact hydrate yourself to a better you.

So what to drink? Well I have four simple suggestions for you, some more for hydration, others could be described as meals and maybe something a little more indulgent for you. So lets start with the obvious.

Water

Everyone should drink more water. Now the way I got myself drinking more water was to get myself a snazzy water bottle with timings on the front of it. This encouraged me to drink more regularly and allowed me to keep track of just what I'm consuming. 

An Open Letter To the People Who Like to Judge my Body

I think sometimes people forget that we are all human, that we all have feelings and that we can all get hurt by peoples comments, actions and judgements. For me what hurts the most is when others feel they have the right to say negative things about my body, to judge me on the way I look, I pass way too much judgement on myself that I don't have any need for anyone else input.

I've always had issues with my body and the way I look and I'm also aware that I'm certainly not alone, there are many girls, boys, men and women that struggle on a daily basis with the way they think they appear to others. There are definitely days where I don't want to look in the mirror for fear of what I'll see looking back at me. 

My August Favourites

How is it almost the end of Summer already? Hope everyone has been enjoying some sunshine. But for now here are my August favourites, all those products that I have been loving this month and I'd like to recommend to you.

I Wouldn't Call It a Diet, I'd Call It Making a Choice About What Food You Eat

I think for those of you that read my blog, you'll know I haven't got the best relationship with food and I definitely have issues with my body. It's something that I'm constantly working on. For years I've seen people talking about being on various diets to lose weight and I'm guilty of saying it at times too but what I've come to realise is that really....

there is no such thing as a diet

It is simply someone making a choice about what food to eat and ultimately those choices are what can change us. I guess we really are what we eat.

Going Ape With Simply Health

I think we all want to be fit and healthy but sometimes the thought of exercising can be a daunting one. So what if there was a way of getting a good workout in without you actually knowing that you were doing any sort of exercise at all?

Cauliflower Pizza Recipe

It's been a while since I've posted a recipe on the blog so I thought it was about time that I shared one with you. On my continual journey to lose weight and tone up I am forever trying out new things with my diet. One food that I struggle to give up is bread even though it really makes my stomach bloat. 

Something that contains this is pizza, whether frozen or made from scratch, it is a meal that is relatively quick and easy to make but as well as the bread giving that bloating affect, it is also laden with calories so I've been on the look out for a good alternative, you know fakeaway style and then I discovered cauliflower pizza bases.

My April Favourites

This has become my favourite kind of post to write. Sharing with you all the things I'e been loving each month. As always there is quite a mixture, from drinks to notepads, bras to nail varnishes. So here are my April favourites for your perusal.

First up these gorgeous bras which I purchased from Asos. I've reached the stage n life where I no longer care if my boobs are pushed up and looking utterly fabulous, I just want to be comfortable. However that doesn't mean that I don't want my underwear to be pretty. I love a good bit of lingerie and these pffer both comfort and style :)

Getting Lean In 2016

Last year I made a conscious effort to take on more of a healthy lifestyle., exercising more and eating a more balanced diet. I was quite proud of the fact that come Christmas I wasn't a big bloated mess like I had been the previous year, I'd managed to lose around a stone over the course of the year and I was in fact still exercising, even if it wasn't as often as I would have wanted to. My aim for this year is much the same but I'm also interested in getting lean, toning up those muscles and being able to show them off.

Positivity, Working Out and a Virtual Helping Hand

I mentioned a few weeks ago about how I was struggling with motivation when it comes to exercise and eating healthily now that the colder months are settling in. To be honest I was really stuck in a rut and was having trouble finding a way out of it. My positivity about working out had vanished to go knows where and lazyiness was taking hold, that was until I got a virtual helping hand.

The Fitbelt Review and Giveaway

I'm sure you have realised by now that I love to exercise, especially running but one thing I have always struggled with when it comes to working out when away from home is being able to carry any of my belongings with me. I feel a bit lost having to leave my phone and keys at home due to lack of pocket space and that is where The Fitbelt comes in to help.

Cold Weather and Loss Of Motivation

I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels like hibernating when the cold weather sets in. Don't get me wrong I love seeing the leaves changing colour, it can be quite nice going out for a long walk in the brisk air but generally I see this time of year as a chance to get cosy infront of a fire. This however also means I get a huge loss of motivation when it comes to exercise and staying fit and unfortunately this also leads to me getting lazy with my diet too.

My normal routine for exercise is to get up early in the morning before the kids wake up and work out before I have little people requesting an array of things from me. But lets be honest at 6.30 am it is bloody freezing and quite frankly still looks like night time outside. So I do what any normal person would do, lean over, press snooze and quickly snuggle back under the covers.

But I want to change my ways. Every year I reach this point and put on ridiculous amounts of weight which makes me feel even worse about myself than I do anyway and  the silly thing is that I can't blame anyone else but myself. I'm kind of hoping by writing this down that I will persuade myself to get into a better mindset.

#DWTrickOrTreat Challenge Round Up Two

I told you last week about the #DWTrickOrTreat challenge which I had been set. Well here is the second round up of my 13 day challenge, the question is did I manage to complete?

Day seven

We were asked to go to a gym on a Sunday, gah, now that is a trick. I don't actually have a gym membership so I opted to go for a run instead.

#DWTrickOrTreat Challenge Round Up One

The lovely people over at DW Fitness kindly set myself and some fellow bloggers a Trick or Treat Challenge. Over 13 days we were to receive a new task every day but we weren't to know whether they'd be to our liking or not.

Junk Food, Lazy Days and No Motivation

I thought it was about time I wrote down a little update on how my health and fitness routine are doing and I'm shamed to admit it's not been going very well of late. The title says it all really, junk food, lazy days and no motivation.

I've dipped back into the world of yoyo dieting. I'll begin to make the effort again, starting a reasonably heatlhy way of eating. My most recent trial was back to eating three meals a day but only having carbs with breakfast, I managed to stick with it for 2 weeks but then I got ill with woman flu.

Yes woman flu not man flu. This made me feel awful and I really struggled to find any sort of will power to get up and do the normal day to day things. After cooking meals for the kids, I lacked any enthusiasm to cook anything for myself and I'll admit that meals for myself have kind of vanished, it is more of a case of picking at things. And the stupid thing is I know that I'm not helping myself.

My main problem is the exercise. All this year I've been getting up early religiously and exercising before the girls get out of bed but since being ill I've not exercised once, so that's 2 weeks without exercise so far. I'm feeling majorly guilty but I still an't muster up the energy to actually get off my arse and do something.

Easy Peasy Protein Balls Recipe

Over the past 9 months my love for exercising has really grown. The trouble is I need to fuel my body with plenty of protein so that my muscles have a chance to recover before I delve into my next workout. Fitting protein into my meals has been quite easy but snack wise was more difficult. I've leaned towards eating things like quest bars but these get quite costly so I have been trying to find ideas for things I can make myself. Protein balls are just that, small balls packed full of protein and I've finally put together a recipe that is easy to make and low in cost too.